A letter of apology

February 8, 2016 • Dana Wagner

On February 5, 2016, we received a letter from His Excellency Marcin Bosacki, Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Canada, bringing to our attention an error on page 178 of Flight and Freedom: Stories of Escape to Canada.

The passage in question uses the wording “Polish SS” (Schutzstaffel) to describe the German SS in occupied Poland. We realize this is a significant grammatical error. There is no Polish SS. It was never our intent to imply otherwise.

We apologize for any ‎hurt and misunderstanding caused by our wording. We sincerely regret the error.

We will correct it by replacing the current wording with “the SS.” This new wording is in context, preceded by the explanation that “Wehrmacht troops had taken over in Eastern Poland.” This correction will be made immediately by issuing an errata to be inserted in all print copies yet to be sold. The new wording will be used in reprints of the print book. The new wording will also be used in the e-book, which is yet to be published. Further, we will post notice of our error on our social media accounts and on the book and publisher websites.

In Flight and Freedom, it was our intent to showcase the remarkable resilience, courage and character of refugees to Canada over the course of this country’s history. We regret that our error has caused a shift in focus from the extraordinary narratives of those forced from their homes in search of freedom, and has instead created pain for others.

Finally, we underline that as interviewers and authors, we are responsible for this error. It is ours, and not that of the son of Holocaust survivor Max Farber, in whose story our error falls.

Sincerely,
Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner

(To read a copy of our letter of apology to the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Canada, click here.)